Identify the social drivers of health in the communities you serve

Use census-tract and ZIP-code level data to identify where vulnerability is highest and where support or intervention may need to be concentrated — so resources go where they're needed most, not where they're easiest to deploy.

See how vulnerability changes dramatically from neighborhood to neighborhood within the same broader region, so community planning and population health strategies reflect local conditions more accurately than regional averages allow.

The index incorporates 43 data points from multiple external sources — including the U.S. Census, EPA, HUD, and USDA — so organizations can work from a broader, richer view of social need and access barriers without having to wrangle disparate datasets themselves.

Use the vulnerability file as a foundational input into community health, access, and social-needs decision-making — informing everything from care delivery strategy to community partnerships and benefit planning where local context matters.

The file includes the overall vulnerability index plus nine domains of social need for each census tract and ZIP code across the United States.

Any score greater than 1 is considered an area of high vulnerability, meaning the neighborhood experiences obstacles to care more than one standard deviation above the national mean.

The Vizient Vulnerability Index adapts its domain weighting by geography so the factors most relevant to life expectancy varies by location. Other indices apply a single national formula and don’t include domains like healthcare access, clean environment, or public safety.

The index draws from 43 data points across multiple public sources including the U.S. Census American Community Survey, EPA, HUD, USDA, crime data, public health datasets, and provider-shortage information.

The file is publicly available – no Vizient membership is required. Any healthcare organization, researcher, or community planning team can download it directly to support their work.

The VVI can support a wide range of planning and analysis efforts where neighborhood-level vulnerability data is useful, including social drivers of health strategy, community health planning, access initiatives, population health work, partnership planning and broader local vulnerability analysis.

When paired with Vizient’s Clinical Data Base, organizations can correlate neighborhood vulnerability scores with patient outcomes data – gaining a deeper understanding of how social conditions uniquely impact the communities they serve.